Checkmate

A heartfelt Congratulations to Susanne and Jesper on their engagement, which they announced to the family over the weekend. Apparently while skiing in Canada last week, Jesper stopped in the middle of a trip down the mountain to ask Sanne to be his bride.... and she said yes!

And a Happy Birthday to you, dad. I hope you have a happy, sunshiny day!

Last Thursday, Matthew's class joined 3,300 fourth grade-students in a Stockholm-wide chess tournament known as "SchackFyran" ("fourth chess"). Matthew's class took first place in Group D with 249 points (the scoring was as follows: for each match, a win gave the class 3 points, a tie gave 2 points and a loss gave 1 point). The class will now compete in the Stockholm finals on April 6. The cool thing about the finals, from Matthew's point of view, is that they are being held in the City Hall. If the class does well there, it will get to compete in the national competition in May.

Nicholas, Lucas and I watched the proceedings for about 1.5 hours. Each student played four matches against a student from another school. With over three thousand students in the room (as well as hundreds of parents and teachers), you can imagine how chaotic the situation seemed. Still, row after row of tables -- upon which hundreds of chess sets had been set up -- seemed to pulse with the concentration of kids focused on the game in front of them. Every match began and ended with a handshake, and win or lose, everyone seemed to be in a good mood. I was impressed with the good sportsmanship this group of kids could muster. As the matches proceeded and the running tally was announced, the excitement grew among the students in Matthew's class. At the end, I found myself cheering with delight when the final results were announced.

I'll post some photos with my next entry -- Steen has the camera today to take pictures at Matthew's science fair this evening.